Seedless Vascular Plants Were the First Tall Plants on Earth

From Water to Land

The diverse plant life on Earth—consisting of nearly 400,000 species—can be divided into three broad categories based on biological characteristics: nonvascular, seedless vascular, and seed plants.

The primary organs of vascular plants are roots, stems, and leaves, but these structures can be highly variable, adapted for the specific needs and environment of different plant species.

Most plants are seed plants—characterized by seeds, pollen, and reduced gametophytes. Seed plants include gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Taxonomy is the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. It uses a hierarchy of increasingly inclusive categories with Latin names. The smallest units of taxonomy, species and genus, are used to assign a formal, taxonomic name to each species in a system. This classification system, referred to as binomial nomenclature, was formalized by Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century.Hierarchy of TaxonomyThe hierarchy that Carolus Linnaeus first...